10:37, Ness's Book
by Adi and Kathryn
Summary: On one strange and fateful day, three perfectly normal girls from Bufezda, Iowa find themselves transported to another dimension (Emelan), find out they are mages, and set in motion their destiny: to change the world. (LOTS OF CIRCLE! REVIEW!)
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE (written by Iris)  
  
Magical Theory  
  
To make sure anyone reading this is on the same figurative page as I am, I've decided to type out a short discussion on my understanding of magic. This varies depending on what books I've been reading, but for now, here it is.  
  
First of all, an important point. Someone unacquainted with magic may not understand why I'm doing this. They may think that magic has no rules and isn't real, and therefore "magical theory" is a contradiction in terms. I assure you, nothing could be farther from the truth. There are rules, and it's real, just in a different sense than what most of us are used to. Try and treat it as though it was a different dimension with totally different rules. So, suspend your disbelief and read on.  
  
As far as I'm concerned, there are two types of magic. There's the academic (or more or less what you generally think of when you think of magic. I'm sure you know, the snap your fingers, say a word, and POOF). And then there's the delightful type of magic we call ambient. This magic is less famous. It deals more with tapping into the magic of everyday things, such as plants, thread or metal.  
  
Now, what does this have to do with our world? In Emelan, (or any of the countries in that "dimension") there's more or less a balance between the academic and ambient magics, with academic being more widely known and recognized. Also, the magic is what some might call "normal" with there usually being many with the same gift. (This is not to say that there aren't exceptions, I believe that there's only one dance mage, but I could be mistaken). Well, in our world this balance is a bit out of whack. Most of the academic mages are gone. Most of the "normal" (academic, ambient, or otherwise) mages are gone too. As to what happened to them, I'm not sure, but I've got a few theories. Most likely we never had them or they could have been weeded out. (Salem witch trials, anyone?) Whatever the reason, we don't seem to have them.  
  
Actually, we don't seem to have too many mages, period.  
  
Or at least none that are recognized. . . 


	2. Chapter One

(author's notes: First of all, this story is NOT written just by me. It's written mainly by me and Adi, with LOTS of help from Iris, and no help at all from Ness, *cough cough*, who's 'supposed' to be the main character in this story! So we all wrote it (except Ness). (disclaimer: okay I don't own any of the Circle characters or Emelan and all that other stuff)  
  
10:37 by Lillian  
  
CHAPTER ONE March 2002 ~~In the city of Bufezda, Iowa~~  
  
Adriana Danzen did not like social studies class at this moment. In fact, she was wishing more and more that she wasn't an 8th grader in Bufezda Middle School. Her social studies class had just learned about Jack the Ripper, and were now watching a movie called "From Hell." Adi, who didn't like horror movies very much, really didn't want to see it at all. In fact, at this moment, she wanted to run screaming out of the room and go to science class. She liked science class. But being that it was part of the curriculum, she had to.  
  
Adi looked fearfully up at the screen. It was a tense moment.the place the characters were was dark and you expected the killer to jump out at any moment. The rest of the kids were watching intently, they all loved horror movies-but that was probably because most of them were boys.  
  
Immediately, something on the screen flashed and the person screamed. There was another flash-the killer had struck!  
  
Adi screamed in alarm and jerked strongly in her chair. Upon her sudden fright, there was a flash of silver light.  
  
And everything stopped. Just like that, it.stopped.  
  
Adi looked around, confused. The TV had stopped, but then again, so had everything else. One of the people near Adi was throwing a paper airplane.and the paper airplane had stopped completely, frozen in midair as if someone pushed the pause button on the TV. Now Adi was confused. Why had everything stopped like that? Adi reached out one hand and poked the paper airplane. It moved slightly in the air, but still remained suspended in that odd way. She waved her hand in front of the person next to her's face-no response. "What is going on?" Adi cried in frustration. "Why is everything all stopped like this?" No response from anyone. It wasn't like Adi was expecting one. All Adi knew was that the molecules were suspended in the air. She didn't know HOW she knew, only that she knew. "Just move!" She exclaimed in frustration, banging her hand on the desk. There was another flash of light and everything started moving again. The TV continued to play, the paper airplane continued its flight and hit the blackboard. Adi was relieved that everything had started up again, but she was still confused.  
  
What had happened.?  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"200 drop spins, left hand, and I want no rolling up!" Came the voice of Diana Rian, the colorguard instructor for the Bufezda High School marching band. Lutra groaned. 200, left hand? She had a hard enough time doing 200 right hand!  
  
Lutra Mendez was in 8th grade, in middle school, just as Adi was. She was also, however, the only middle school student to join the high school colorguard (which was part of the marching band). It was her first year, and she had no idea why she was doing this. Aha-her old guard instructor had conned her into it, that's why. She made it seem like 'no big deal.'  
  
Hah.  
  
But she had never known that Diana Rian would be her instructor. Diana was the instructor from, shall we say, H-E-double hockey sticks. Lutra thought she left her horns, tail, and pitchfork at home as to not scare the colorguard. But 200 left hand drop spins? That was just.preposterous!  
  
Lutra sighed, going up to right shoulder at her instructor's command. What time was it, anyway? Lutra didn't need to look at her watch.she knew it was exactly 4:17. 4:17.and 32 seconds. She didn't know how she knew, just that she knew. Lutra looked at her watch. Sure enough, 4:17 and 32 seconds.  
  
Lutra switched to left shoulder when she realized that Diana was glaring at her, and prepared for her 200 drop spins. "Ready, begin!" Diana began clapping as everyone did their spins. "Fast!" Lutra hissed to herself. "It's too fast, how do you expect me to keep up? Go SLOWER!" Lutra was frustrated.  
  
Then, as if as an answer to her plea, things began to go.slower. Each drop spin seemed elongated, seemed to last several looong seconds. Lutra could pretty much keep up easily now. But now the seconds were longer. 33 seconds.33.33.33.each second seemed to last ten. "199.200." Diana's voice seemed long and drawn out, like the way voices sound in slow motion.  
  
Lutra blinked. "This is odd." She thought. "The time of drop spins seemed to slow down for me. But why? And.how?" But as she said that, the seconds began to speed up again and go back to their normal pace. The seconds were once again seconds, the minutes minutes, and so on. As Lutra could tell, time had resumed its normal pace perfectly. But not for the time she had to do the drop spins.  
  
How.strange.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Ooh, are you going to read again, Vanessa?" "Yeah, read you're book!" "Yeah, and do my homework while you're at it!" In art class, Vanessa Matazi was surrounded by the taunting whispers of the boys in her class. They tried to make fun of her.of how she liked to read, and how she ALWAYS did perfect at clay building in art, and how she was rather smart. All the boys kept wanting her to do their homework for them.  
  
"Go away." Nessa, or Ness, said, burying her head back into her book. "I won't go away until you do my homework!" Said Bobby, one of the boys. "Go away!" Ness repeated. "No!" Bobby snatched the book out of Ness's hands, running across the room with it. "No!" Ness exclaimed, getting up out of her chair. "My book! Give me back my book!" The bell chose that ill-chosen moment to ring.  
  
Ness ran over to the other side of the room. She realized that unless the got her book back NOW, then she'd be late for her next class. And Ness hated to be late for anything, even more so than Lutra.  
  
"Give me my book back!" She repeated. Bobby grinned tauntingly at her, passing the book from hand to hand. Ness was getting really annoyed. "I said, give that." Ness never reached the word 'back', because Bobby gave a funny gasp and dropped to the floor. Ness, alarmed, took a step back. Bobby was lying flat on the floor.literally. He seemed to have become. Two dimensional??  
  
Ness, shocked, took her book. When she did, Bobby gasped again and became his normal self. He looked very pale.  
  
"Keep your book!" He said, his voice suddenly quivering and afraid. He gave a scared look at Ness and ran out of the room. Ness, very confused herself, put her book back in her bookbag and ran out of the classroom. Weird.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
It was lunchtime in Bufezda Middle School. All three of them, Adi, Lutra, and Ness, went to middle school. They were in fact in 8th grade.  
  
It was lunchtime, and after they ate lunch they went to the reading room. Their school had a thing called the reading room where you could go to read after you ate lunch. Since the three of them liked to read, they were there every single day.  
  
They left the lunch room and went to the reading room, stopping briefly at Lutra's locker before they got there. Their friend Irisa Orawynn, or Iris, was already sitting there. Iris waved them over. She was busy working on her art homework-Iris was a very good artist. She always seemed to know the right balance of color perception and light. "Hey guys." Iris said to them as they sat down. "Hi, Iris." They all replied. Ness took out her book and started reading, while Adi and Lutra talked (and prepared to get yelled at by the teacher monitor for talking) (author's note: PASS LADY!!).  
  
"You know," Adi began. "The strangest thing happened to me the other day." "What?" Lutra asked. Ness peered over her book to hear what Adi was saying. Adi then proceeded to tell her two friends that unusual incident in her social studies class in which she froze everything. "I honestly don't know what happened." Adi shook her head.  
  
"You know, something weird happened to me like that too." Ness added, putting her book down to look at the two of them. The then told them about how she turned Bobby two dimensional in art. Lastly, Lutra told them about her stretching out the time of her drop spins at colorguard.  
  
"Weird." Adi said, shaking her head. They all agreed how strange these incidents were, especially Ness turning Bobby two dimensional. "There HAS to be an explanation of some sort for this." Adi said. She didn't like unanswered questions. "I actually have no idea." Replied Ness.  
  
Ness was usually very logical; she always had an answer for everything. But this time, she didn't have an answer for this.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
(author's note: Hannah, you can kill me for this later. *and Trey spontaneously combusts*)  
  
After lunch, poor Adi was stuck with gym class, her least favorite class of the day. Adi, as well as her two other friends, despised gym. Adi changed into her gym clothes and then trudged into the large gym, her least favorite place to be. The teacher then said those dreaded words: "Line up in you're teams for softball!"  
  
Adi sighed and got in line, into a nice safe place in the back. "Adi Danzen, you're up." The gym teacher said. Hey.that gym teacher had no business putting her as first up at bat! Adi scowled her best scowl at the gym teacher before taking the softball bat, feeling the molecules tightly packed in the wood.  
  
Unfortunately, Dan Savis the class loudmouth began his usual routine. He began taunting Adi, yelling random insults at her. He did that to everyone in the class, but Adi never cared for it that much. "I wish a big wad of.something.would come out and hit Dan Savis." Adi thought viciously to herself, gripping the bat.  
  
Suddenly, there was a whoosh in the air. Adi turned around, and suddenly a big wad off.something.came out and hit Dan Savis. Dan looked confused, snapping his mouth shut, being that he was just hit by a wad of something.  
  
"What was THAT?" The gym teacher exclaimed, staring at the thing on the floor. Adi, actually trying not to laugh, replied, "I think it was a.wad of something."  
  
The teacher picked up the wad of something and looked at it strangely. "This is odd." The teacher said. The teacher threw out the wad of something, and gym class continued. But Dan Savis didn't bother Adi for the rest of the day.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ness was getting stressed out in math class. The teacher was confusing her, throwing wild and strange algebraic equations out at her. "Vanessa, would you kindly come up to the board and solve this one for us?" It was another confusing equation: combining like terms, something Ness never really understood. Ness, mortally afraid, walked up to the board and picked up the chalk. She stared at the problem on the board: x(3x+x2)-2x(3x2=7). She raised the chalk piece to the board and stopped, not knowing what to do now. "Need help, Ness?" A voice came out of the classroom. Most of the people in the class would start yelling at those who 'took too long.'  
  
"I'm fine." Ness muttered. She continued at the equation, hearing more of the taunting voices. Why wouldn't they leave her alone?  
  
Suddenly, things around Ness began flickering. The world seemed to be fading out from her vision, blending into something else. She turned around.the classroom seemed to be becoming fuzzier and blending with another place. She could half see the classroom, half see another place.a mountain top.with a city lying below, on the bottom. "Vanessa?" Came the teacher's querying voice, jerking her back to reality. The mountain faded, replaced entirely by the classroom itself.  
  
"Vanessa, what happened? You seemed to be, fuzzy, blurry.?" The teacher was confused. Ness shrugged, equally confused. "I don't know." She replied. But Ness didn't have to finish the equation-the teacher got someone else.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"This.is a comma. A comma is used to." Mrs. Derkon, Lutra's 8th period reading/writing teacher, was being extremely boring. Of course, that was nothing new-she was ALWAYS boring. Lutra was leaning on her desk, head down, trying her hardest not to fall asleep, trying not to let her mind wander.  
  
"Lutra!" Lutra jumped. The teacher was staring at her expectantly. "Can you read your introductory paragraph for the memoir to the class?" Lutra began shuffling through her papers, feeling a blush creep through her cheeks as she realized the was unprepared. She found her memoir, though, and began reading. "It was late in February 2001. It was a cold, cloudy day, with a hint of snow in the air." Mrs. Derkon cut Lutra off. "Lutra, you're introduction is shoddy. Let me see it." She then took Lutra's essay and began reading it out loud, criticizing it as often as possible.  
  
Lutra tried to sink into her chair, but it was no use.the teacher continued. Lutra glared angrily. "Why is she doing this?" Lutra thought. "I wish a dilophosaurus would come and eat all these essays."  
  
Then, upon her thinking that, Lutra felt a slight tug on something inside her. There was a blaze of silver light, and when the light cleared, standing over 16 feet tall in the middle of the classroom was..  
  
A dilophosaurus?!  
  
The dinosaur roared, then turned to look at Lutra before it grabbed a mouthful of nearby essay. Mrs. Derkon gave a look of complete amazement, confusion, disbelief, and anger that a dinosaur would DARE to disrupt her class. The dilophosaurus made its way around the room, eating essays and generally causing havoc.  
  
Lutra, while being confused, just noted how out of time the dilo was. Finally, the creature stopped in front of Lutra's desk, blinking at her with its fierce eyes. It tilted its head, almost as if to say, "I have done my job here."  
  
Lutra looked around. The essays were either eaten or ripped to shreds. The rest of the room was in shambles. "You can go home now, I guess." Lutra whispered. There was another flash of silver light and the dinosaur was gone. Lutra felt another tug on that invisible something, and suddenly felt strangely exhausted, as if she had just run a mile. But the teacher didn't assign any more essays. 


	3. Chapter Two

(many thanks to all who reviewed!)  
  
CHAPTER TWO  
  
So far, it had been an extremely strange week for Adi, Lutra, and Ness. Strange and unexplainable things had been happening to the three 8th graders. But nothing could compare with the strangeness of what happened one Saturday at Ness's house.  
  
Ness had invited Adi and Lutra over for the day. They arrived at 12:30 noon, and were scheduled to go home around 6. "Hey, Adi!" Ness said, opening the door. Adi waved to her friend, and Lutra who was already there. "What's up?" Ness asked. "Well." Adi replied, then proceeded to tell them exactly what was up. "Some clouds, particularly cirrus and cumulus. Also the sun, a few airplanes, and a blimp approximately 1.56 miles from here. And there's." "You're late." Lutra interrupted, cutting into Adi's long and detailed explanation. "It's 12:33." Adi rolled her eyes at Lutra. "Yeah, by three minutes." She said. "It's still three minutes." Lutra shook her head. The three of them lounged around at Ness's for awhile before Ness decided to order some Chinese food. She called the Chinese food place and ordered, and now they were waiting for their food ("How long does it take them, anyway?" Lutra said. "We ordered 17 minutes, 52 seconds, and 28 milliseconds ago!"). They talked about the usual stuff-how stupid the boys were in school, what books were really good, how many days now before spring break. . .  
  
Soon the doorbell rang-Chinese food! All three of them stampeded to the door. Ness opened it, digging for money to pay the Chinese food guy. "Three orders of shrimp fried rice, spicy chicken, beef with mushrooms, egg rolls, wonton soup. . ." Ness counted out the money for the guy, pulling a wad of folded bills out of her pocket.  
  
Counting, she realized she was short a few dollars. "I need four dollars more, drat, I need. . ." Ness handed the guy the money she had so far. She turned to Adi and Lutra. "Does anybody have. . ."  
  
She was cut short when a blinding silver light surrounded her. Lutra felt the time around her slow to a stop, and Adi felt the molecules of space also stopping. The silver light brightened around Ness and expanded to include both Adi and Lutra. The Chinese food guy was still motionless at the door, expecting more money, with a wad of bills in his hand. The light's intensity grew, and it shined and glowed. . . And then the entire world they knew vanished around them  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The three girls roused briefly into consciousness about an hour later. They took a look at their unusual and new surroundings-they were on. . .top. . .of a mountain. ". . .four dollars. . ." Ness finished her sentence. "I think so. . ." Adi replied. And then they all fainted.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The bright morning sun rose over the mountain peak, showing brilliantly in the eyes of Adi, Lutra, and Ness.  
  
Ness didn't open her eyes immediately. Adi was the first one awake, sitting up straight and surveying her surroundings, now that she could get a better look. They were on top of a mountain, and at the bottom was a town that stretched into a city, and far off there was a place that Adi recognized as a "citadel."  
  
Adi poked Lutra. "Lutra, wake up!" She said. "You too, Ness." She added, poking Ness as well. Lutra rolled over and stretched. Those months of colorguard and long practices had kept her body from getting stiff, but she was still not a morning person. "Ness!" Adi poked Ness again. "No thanks, Numair, I'll be fine." Ness muttered in her sleep. Adi and Lutra exchanged glances. "Who's Numair?" Adi asked. Ness came fully awake then. "Huh?" She said. "You just said, 'no thanks, Numair, I'll be fine.' Who's Numair?" Adi asked again. Ness blinked. "A guy I read about in a book once. I was dreaming. . .where are we?" It seemed that just now Ness noticed they were on top of a mountain. Adi looked around. "We're in Summersea, which is in a place called Emelan. I don't know anything about this place, just that that's where we are." "And it's 11:49." Lutra added as an afterthought.  
  
All three of them were still thoroughly confused. "I'd ask how we got here, but somehow I don't think anyone knows." Lutra said, getting up and stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Do we have anything. . .useful. . .with us?" Asked Ness, the logical one. Adi, who had her backpack with her, pulled it open. "My CD player." She announced. "No CD's, though. Well that sucks. Some potato chips. The book 'Marlfox'. An origami crane." She turned to Lutra, who had her purse. "Got anything useful there?" Lutra peered inside. "Hair clips, tic tacs, my library card, some random stuff. And my cell phone." Lutra lifted out her cell phone, a normal looking black one. "But somehow I don't think it's going to work here. Do you?" Adi asked. Lutra shook her head. "This place. . .wherever it is. . .doesn't look like it would have cell phone towers." Nobody seemed to notice, however, the fact that Lutra's cell phone seemed to be shining an odd silvery color.  
  
Ness sighed at the two of them, got up, and turned to face the town at the bottom of the mountain. "That helps." She said, wrinkling her nose at the stuff Adi and Lutra had with them. "Maybe we'll have better luck at the town. . ." Adi said, pointing. "It's approximately 2.3 miles from here." She added, causing everyone to stare at her. "Well, it is." She replied with a shrug.  
  
"And if we hurry, it will take us two hours and 19 minutes to get there." Lutra added as well. "Well, then let's go!" Ness said. The three of them started down the mountain.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
As Lutra predicted, it took them two hours and 19 minutes to get to the town. Of course, now that they were in it, they didn't. . .know where to go next.  
  
"We're lost." Ness announced after they wandered the streets for 14 minutes. Adi turned to glare at her. "No, we're NOT lost." She said pointedly. "We're in a place called Summersea, in Emelan." Everyone sighed. Adi had an unusually good sense of direction-no matter where they were, she ALWAYS knew just precisely where that was. Ness scowled. "Well, then, we don't know where we're going." She said. Adi nodded her approval. "Better."  
  
They continued to wander-I mean, they continued to walk-for awhile  
  
"You know, if we just. . ." Adi was cut off abruptly by a girl darting out and running into her. The girl knocked Adi down. "Oof!" Adi exclaimed in surprise as her and the girl fell into a heap. The girl scrambled up and off Adi and stood up. She had short, dark hair and had a foreign look to her. "Sorry." She said. There was also the hint of an accent in her voice. "Didn't see you there."  
  
Adi got up, brushing herself off. "Where are you from, anyway?" The girl asked. "I mean, you definitely don't look like you're from around here." That was true enough-Ness's shiny skirt, Adi's jeans and shirt that said, 'On our raft we have a prayer-holy shit!' and Lutra's jeans and T-shirt that had a picture of a huge hairy ape and said, 'My band director can beat your band director' were very out of place in this world. The girl was wearing loose-fitting pants (a/n: Hey Steph! PANTS!) and a tunic, and her short hair was pulled back in a kerchief.  
  
"Uh. . ." Lutra said. "We're from. . .across the ocean!" Adi blurted. She knew somehow that there was an ocean nearby. "Yeah. Our. . .boat crashed. . .during a storm." Ness added. The girl looked at them strangely. "Oookay then. . .anyway, my name's Evvy, what's yours?" "Adi." "Nessa." (she was interrupted by Adi saying, "Call her Ness.") "Lutra." Evvy nodded. "Come, I'll bring you to my teacher. He might be able to help. . .you guys seem lost." "Yeah." Ness agreed, but got a glare from Adi. "Well, we're not lost.we just don't know where we're going." She said quickly. Evvy shrugged. "Whatever." She started walking into the busier section of town, with Adi, Lutra, and Ness running to catch up.  
  
Finally, Evvy stopped in front of one of the stalls in a marketplace. The stall was filled with all sorts of miniature trees-every kind you could imagine.  
  
"Briar!" Evvy called into the stall. "Briar, a couple of girls are lost-" A glare from Adi stopped her. "I mean, a couple of girls don't know where they're going. I told them you could help." "Hold on, Evvy." A voice called. There was a rustling sound, and all the miniature trees seemed to lean towards an invisible something. A boy, about 17 or 18 years old, emerged from behind the trees. He had dark hair and gray-green eyes, and was rather tall.  
  
"Oooh. . ." Adi whispered. "He's HOT!" Lutra nodded her agreement with Adi. "Hey." Evvy turned to them. "This is my teacher, Briar Moss. He's a plant mage." The three of them exchanged glances. You could tell they were all thinking the same thing-plant mage?  
  
Briar smiled welcomingly at them. "Hello!" He said, then began moving about and touching each one of his trees in turn. "Sorry. . .these trees take up a lot of time. You three aren't from Summersea?" They shook their heads. "No, we're from Bufezda." Adi said. Briar stared at them. "Across the ocean." Ness interjected, so Briar didn't think they were crazy. "So, you don't really know you're way around?" "We don't know where we're going." Adi said a bit too quickly. "Oookay. . .I'll be right back. Evvy, could you show them around a bit? Bring them back later. I trust that won't be a problem." Evvy shook her head. "Alright, then." Briar vanished back into the mass of trees in his stall. "I get to show you around." Evvy said, grinning wickedly. Adi and Lutra just nodded. . .their minds were still on that. . .Briar.  
  
Evvy led them through the winding marketplace. It was very easy to get lost, but somehow, none of them did. 


	4. Chapter Three

((a/n: I don't know how to do italics in here so whenever a word is supposed to be in italics it'll just be in these: ~~))  
  
CHAPTER THREE  
  
When they got to an open courtyard, a voice called, "Hey, Evvy!" Evvy turned, waving to someone. "Be right back, okay?" Evvy didn't give them a chance to answer; she just darted off, leaving Adi, Lutra, and Ness standing lost-no, confused-in the courtyard.  
  
"Hey, look at them!" A voice called. One of the native boys had seen these three strange looking girls. "Where are you from?" He demanded, putting his hands on his hips. "Certainly not from anywhere in Summersea." "No, we're from. . .across the ocean." Ness said. The older boy scowled. "Well, let me tell you that we don't much like newcomers taking up our land. Especially here, you see, this is me and my boys' territory." He glared at them. "We don't put up with foreign people, do we, Gerry?" He turned to the shorter boy next to him. "No, Shanno, we don't." Gerry replied. "This land doesn't belong to anyone. I know for a fact it doesn't." Adi countered. "So what are you going to do, fight us off or something?" Lutra added, becoming thoroughly annoyed with these boys.  
  
"Yeah. We will." Shanno said challengingly, jumping an aiming a punch at Lutra. She ducked to one side, leaving him only to graze her cheek. "Missed." Lutra said, sticking out her tongue. "Hey, don't try to hit my friend!" Adi exclaimed, dodging him and giving him a good hard kick in the shins. Shanno let out a yelp, stumbling back a few paces. "Well, get them!" He shouted to Gerry. Gerry kicked Ness hard behind the knees, making her fall down with a cry. Shanno then called for help-several other boys came from behind, and soon a full fight was brewing.  
  
After five minutes of brawling, and people gathering in the courtyard, the three girls seemed to. . .lose control.  
  
Adi stood up, looking oddly dignified despite the fact that her eye was starting too look black and blue, and flung her arms out. Someone punched at Lutra and she threw her arms up in defence. Ness got up and aimed a punch at another guy, and then. . . Well, let's just say that things changed a bit.  
  
For a second everything seemed to hang in the air, and then the boys all. . .changed. They were suddenly all flat, and frozen. According to Ness they were all two dimensional. According to Adi they were frozen in space. And according to Lutra, they were frozen in time.  
  
The people who had been watching the fight were now bewildered and confused, and began slowly departing.  
  
"Evvy!" A voice-Briar's-called. "Evvy, where are you? When I said to show the newcomers around, I didn't mean. . ." At that moment, Briar caught sight of Adi, Lutra, and Ness.  
  
Evvy came out of wherever she was. "Um, Briar? I was just showing them. . ." But Briar was ignoring her-instead he was staring at the three confused girls who, in his eyes, were shining bright silver. "How did you do that? Wait-~what~ did you do?" Briar asked them in disbelief. "Uh. . ." Adi was just speechless. "I froze them in space. Don't ask me how, I just know I did." She finally managed to say. "Yeah, and I froze them in time." Lutra added, feeling slightly less like she was crazy when Adi said it. Briar, still bewildered, turned to hear Ness's answer. "I turned them two dimensional." She said. "Again." She muttered under her breath.  
  
Evvy ran up beside Briar. "Why are you staring at the other-side-of-the- ocean people?" Evvy demanded, poking Briar's arm. "They do look odd, but I guess that's because they do things different on the other side of the ocean. . ." Evvy's voice kind of faded out when she realized that Briar was ignoring her. Briar looked at the three girls. "Do. . .any of you. . .know that you are mages?" He said. All he got was blank stares. "At least it's better than having them ~run away~." He muttered, remembering what happened with Evvy. Sighing, Briar looked at the boys in a rather unfortunate predicament. "Sorry about that." He told them. "I'll have them reverse the spell in no time." Unfortunately they were two dimensional and frozen in time and space, so they didn't hear him.  
  
The three girls continued to stare blankly at him. "But. . .we. . .don't even. . .know what we did." Adi said. "So how can we reverse it?" Briar shrugged. "I don't know." He said. Lutra turned to the boys. They were frozen in time. Well, that day at colorguard practice, time had slowed down at her call, so maybe it would unfreeze at her call to. . .  
  
She reached out a hand, cautiously touching the time that was around them. To Lutra it seemed like a tangible thing. Somehow the time reached out to her, and upon her thought of it unfreezing. . . It did just that.  
  
Lutra now could tell that the time around them was unfrozen and moving normally once more. She smirked to herself, satisfied. Briar turned to Lutra. "You. . .unfroze them?" He asked.  
  
Ooh. . .the strange boy was talking to ~her~! "Yeah." Lutra said, happy that he was addressing her. "Only in time, though." She added quickly. "I'll unfreeze them in space." Adi announced, clearly trying to get Briar's attention drawn to her. "See?" Adi, just on a whim, flung her hands out at the frozen, flat boys. There was another odd sense, and the two dimensional boys fell flat on the ground.  
  
Adi blinked in surprise. Had she truly unfrozen them? The space around them was moving again. But Adi was just saying she could to get Briar's attention. . . Briar, anyway, nodded his approval to her. Ness was last-the boys were still two-dimensional. She walked up to the crumpled, flat boys, not knowing exactly what to do. But then again, it looked like Adi and Lutra didn't know either, and were "just guessing." So she would just have to guess, too. She lifted a hand, taking the two-dimensional shapes and mentally thinking of them as normal. There was a pause, and the two boys were once again their normal selves. Ness smiled slightly, not knowing what she did but just glad she did it.  
  
"Well." Briar said, not knowing what else to say as he looked at the three girls. Evvy started at them. She could sometimes recognize magic when she saw it. "Are they mages, Briar?" She asked. "Like me?" Briar glared at Evvy. "Evvy, you are coming close to being kicked." He said. Evvy grinned, knowing that he threatened her all the time, ever so reminiscent of his own teacher.  
  
"Mages?" Out of the three of them, only Ness vaguely knew what that meant. Mages, as far as Ness knew, were "trained wizards." Ness also knew that they were fictional. Crossing her arms, she said, "Yeah, right." Briar paused, looking thoughtful. "This may sound strange, but I need you three to come with me." He said. "Oh, you mean you're taking them back to- ow!" Briar stepped hard on Evvy's foot to keep her from finishing her sentence. "Take us where?" Adi demanded. She knew where everything was, and always liked to know where exactly she was going. Briar sighed. "Follow me." He said. To Evvy, he said, "They're from the other side of the ocean. We don't want to ~scare~ them."  
  
Briar started off through the courtyard and out into the marketplace. Adi, Lutra, and Ness all followed close behind. Briar stopped at his stall, touching each of his miniature trees in turn before closing the stall down. He did take one tree with him-a miniature pine that grew in an S shape sharply to the right, clearly marked with a "Not for sale" sign. "That's Briar's shakkan." Evvy said knowingly, although the girls didn't exactly know what a "shakkan" was. "Come, follow me." Briar then left the marketplace itself and walked along the streets. Finally, they reached a medium-sized house. "Well, we're here." Briar announced, pushing the door open. Evvy grinned and bounced inside. "Hey, Pasco!" She said. A boy, looking about Evvy's age, waved at her. "I thought you were at your dance school." Evvy said. "No, I'm coming home for several days. Yasmin is actually giving me a break, imagine that." Replied the boy, Pasco. Evvy grinned. "That's good." She went inside, and her and Pasco started talking.  
  
A girl about the same age as Briar looked up from something she was weaving. "Oh, Briar, you're back early." She said. "Yeah, well, I have a reason." Briar replied, setting the plant-the shakkan-on the table. He turned to the girls, indicating for them to come in. "This is Sandry, my foster-sister." He told them. Sandry waved a cheerful greeting. "Oh, so Briar brought-" She stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, suddenly noticing that to her magical vision these three girls Briar brought were glowing silver. She looked at Briar. "That's why you brought them here." She said. "But do ~they~ know?" Briar shook his head.  
  
Adi, Lutra, and Ness were still confused. "Sorry. You're not from here?" Sandry asked. "We're from across the ocean." Ness said. "Yeah, our ship crashed." Lutra added, knowing they'd have to make up something plausible. Sandry nodded, looking sympathetic. "And you're the only survivors?" "Uh. . .yeah." Adi finished. "I'm sorry." Sandry said, looking like she was indeed. The three of them didn't know how to reply to ~that~. . .it was just a story they made up.  
  
Sandry motioned for Briar to come with her. "Briar, can I see you in. . .the garden for a second?" Her eyes flicked to the three girls. Briar, understanding, nodded and walked out to the garden, Sandry following him.  
  
"Well, that was strange." Adi said after the two people left. "And it's been more than a second already." Lutra said to no one in particular. "And Briar is hot." She whispered to Adi. "Yeah!" Adi agreed, nodding her head vehemently. Ness just rolled her eyes.  
  
A few minutes later (approximately 5 minutes and 42 seconds, Lutra noted). "We'll wait for Daja to return before we used hers scrying mirror." Sandry said.  
  
Briar cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. "May I ask a question?" He began. "Have you. . .ever. . .done magic before?"  
  
~What??~  
  
Adi snorted. ~Magic?~ The three of them exchanged glances. "Are you crazy?" Adi said. "Magic's not real." "Except in books. But that's fictional." Ness added.  
  
Sandry and Briar looked at each other. "I see." Briar said. "Well, it's true." Adi protested. "Also, magic defies all the laws of nature. How can you just make something ~appear~ our of nowhere? Matter cannot be created or destroyed. It's a law! And also-" Adi was cut off by Lutra stepping on her foot.  
  
Briar sighed. "Sandry," He said. "This is going to be harder than I thought." 


	5. Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR  
  
"Let's see. I'm assuming people on the. . .other side of the ocean. . .don't believe in magic?" Briar asked. "Don't believe?!" came Ness's exclamation. "We don't ~believe~ because it ~doesn't exist~."  
  
Sandry and Briar looked very confused at this point. "They. . .don't have magic?" he asked, bewildered. "No." Came all three girls replies at the same time. "How can there not be magic?" Briar demanded. "There just ~isn't~." Adi replied. "It's impossible." "No, it's not impossible!" Briar continued. "Because ~you three are mages. You have magic.~"  
  
Silence. Nothing except Adi, Lutra, and Ness blinked.  
  
Finally, Adi said something, a brilliant notation on her part: "Huh?"  
  
Sandry sighed. "Okay, then, let's start with the basics." She began. Sandry turned back to Briar. "How exactly ~do~ we explain this?" Briar stared blankly at Sandry before she turned black to them. "What do ~you~ think magic is?" She asked. "It's a way of influencing things around you." Ness said. "Yeah, without actually ~touching~ it." Adi grumbled. "Okay. . .that's. . .close enough, I guess. Why is that impossible?" "Just because!" Adi burst out. "You can't influence something without physically touching it! I mean, you can't pick up a glass without touching it!"  
  
Suddenly, a glass appeared in Adi's hand. She dropped it in surprise and said, "Uhh. . ." in a very deflated manner. Ness turned to Adi and said, "Bad example." Adi sighed. "Well, ~you~ think of something then!" Adi glared at the glass which didn't break when she dropped it-it shattered. She turned to Lutra. "Well, help me out here!" She exclaimed exasperatedly. "It's impossible, right?" She looked expectantly at Lutra. "Um. . ." Lutra began. Adi smacked her forehead. "This is ridiculous!" She exclaimed. "Do you ~all~ think it could be real?"  
  
Ness and Lutra glanced at each other. "Um. . ."  
  
"I. . .hope that was a rhetorical question." By now, Briar and Sandry were getting suspicious. It couldn't be ~that~ different on the other side of the ocean, could it? "Adi, you like ranting, don't you?" Lutra asked. "Yes." Adi replied.  
  
"Okay!" briar said, cutting through the heated "debate." "Let's just say, hypothetically speaking of course, that there ~is~ such a thing as magic." He paused, looking around. No arguments. . .yet.  
  
"Now let's just say, once again hypothetically, that you three have magic." Adi opened her mouth to argue. "It's ~hypothetical~. Calm down!" Sandry interjected. "Then that means, hypothetically of course, that by law we are required to teach you." Briar said finally. "Or unless we can find another teacher." Sandry interrupted again. Briar smiled gratefully at her. "Oh, I'd forgotten about that! But back to the. . . 'hypothetical' situation. If we hypothetically have to teach you, we have to at least know your names." He turned to Adi.  
  
Lutra pointed to Ness. "This is Vanessa, or Ness as we call her." "Nessa!" Ness interjected. "As I said, this is Ness. And the lovely raving lunatic over there is Adriana, or Adi." Adi gave an extravagant bow. "And I'm Lutra. ~No nicknames!~" "But if you really want to annoy her, call her Lute or Lutie." Adi put in, grinning evilly. Lutra glared at Adi, and held up an imaginary knife. She them made a *pphhhttt* sound, in which Adi replied by saying, "Ahhh!" and clutching her chest and pretending to fall backwards. Briar and Sandry exchanged very confused glances. "Don't worry, you get used to it." Ness reassured them. "I'm sure we will." Sandry replied dryly.  
  
Briar just rolled his eyes.  
  
After a long, tedious debate (mainly involving Adi completely refusing to believe the existence of magic), Sandry and Briar convinced the three girls to at least spend the night, since they didn't exactly have any place to go (or any reason even to be there).  
  
"Okay, where are we going to put them?" Sandry asked, and she and Briar went upstairs to find a room for them. "What, now we're dogs?" Adi said. "'So, where are we going to put them'?" Adi said before sighing and turning to Lutra. "I'm tired of being indignant. You be indignant for awhile." Adi said to Lutra. Lutra blinked. "Um, I don't exactly see any problems. . ." She said. "What do you mean you don't see any problems? We were. . . nevermind." Adi stopped abruptly, turning in the direction of the door. "Somebody's coming." She said. "Yeah, and they're five minutes late." Lutra added. The door burst open, and standing in the doorway was a tall, dark- skinned girl with her hair in many braids, and carrying an ebony staff.  
  
"Briar, Sandry, I'm home." She called. Briar stuck his head down. "It's about time!" He said. "Yeah, I agree." Lutra added. He first stared at Lutra, muttering, "At least one of them agrees with me one something." He turned back to the new girl. "Daja, could you come upstairs for a moment? We have a. . . slight problem. . . we need to discuss." Daja glanced over at the three girls lounging in the livingroom. "Oh no, not again." She groaned. "Briar, Sandry, you two have a lot of explaining to do!" She marched upstairs to join them, muttering something about 'Jory' and 'staff fighting.'  
  
Ness, who hadn't said much, remarked, "I don't think she likes us very much." Adi raised an eyebrow. "I don't think she even ~noticed~ us." "Well, she did. . ." Lutra added. "But she didn't ~acknowledge our presence~."  
  
The conversation was cut off by muffled arguments and shouts from upstairs. They exchanged glances, and then slowly and quietly snuck up the stairs.  
  
When they reached the door, there was a brief fight for who gets to listen at the keyhole. Ness won, leaving Adi and Lutra to listen against the door.  
  
"Us? Are we ~stuck~ with them?" A voice said. "Why? We have enough to deal with!" "You found them, so ~you~ should teach them." Another voice said. "Me? I have enough to deal with with Evvy!" That, they could tell, was Briar's voice. "So, you still found them." The argument went on like that for quite awhile before someone said, "How about we just find out what their magic is? We can work from there." "Fine. That works."  
  
The door opened, and Adi, Lutra, and Ness all fell into the room. "Oops." Adi said.  
  
"See?" Briar said, pointing to them. "See?" He shook his head. "You three, downstairs." He continued. "Daja, you'll get your scrying mirror and meet us down there." Daja nodded and went off.  
  
Adi, Lutra, and Ness went downstairs. "Sit." Briar ordered. The girls, not knowing what else to do, obeyed Briar and sat.  
  
Daja came downstairs with hers scrying mirror (the one without the little flowers on the back). "Alright, before we get started, this is Adi, this is Lutra, and this is Ness." Sandry said, showing Daja who each of them were. Daja nodded, taking out her mirror. "Okay, then. First, you, Adi, come here." Daja motioned for Adi to come. For once, Adi didn't argue and went to Daja. Daja held the scrying mirror in front of adi.  
  
Adi's face showed at first, but then gradually a starry sky materialized behind her. Things appeared and vanished, and many molecules twisted and swirled around. "Space!" Adi piped up. "Space and molecules!" Daja looked up at Sandry and Briar. "Space." She said. "Who's ever heard of a space mage?" Daja sighed and took the mirror from Adi's face. "Your magic is with space, with molecules and the things around us." Daja told Adi, not giving her any time to argue and say, "I don't have magic!"  
  
Next, she took the mirror to Lutra's face. She was clocks of al sorts, and an array of different times and dates. She also saw strange creatures from years ago arise and then vanish. "Time." Daja announced. "Lutra, your magic is with time. You work with time, all aspects of it." Lutra grinned. Unlike Adi, she enjoyed this. And it made sense to her-her strange fascination of time all her life was actually for a reason.  
  
Adi made a face at Lutra as Daja took the scrying mirror to Ness. When she held it to Ness, she saw a line, dot, square, cube, and places flickering on and off in the distance. Daja looked thoroughly confused at that. There was a long pause as she stared blankly into the mirror. Finally, Ness said, "Looks like dimensions."  
  
Daja took the mirror away. "A space mage, a time mage, and a dimensions mage." She announced.  
  
"What next?" 


	6. Chapter Five

((A/n: Ahhh I have taken SO long to get this next chapter up. But I finally typed it, and here it is! First, though, a random author's note. I would very much like people to know about this story, and review. It's the first real project I've ever worked on (there will be 8 books in total) and we would like to know what people think. Flames are welcome, because they will be used to light Daja's forge. Although constructive criticism is welcome, because it will help to improve. This story does speed up a bit, don't worry, I just have to introduce the characters and all that stuff. Well, enjoy the next chapter, and REVIEW!!! ~Lillian))  
  
CHAPTER FIVE  
  
"I still don't believe in magic." Adi said after Daja used her scrying mirror on them. "It's still impossible." She made her opinions quite clear. Briar, getting annoyed, said, "Adi, how can you ~not~ believe in magic when ~you have it~?" Adi blinked, unable to reply. But that was most likely because Briar was talking to her.  
  
Just then, the door opened again. "Hi, Tris." Briar said to the redheaded girl in the doorway. "Oh, hello." She said. "How was. . ."  
  
Tris the stopped and stood there, suddenly realizing that there were three new people there that she had never seen before. "Who are. . ." Briar cut her off with an impatient wave of his ((a/n: Hey Adi.Briar cut her off with an impatient wave of her hand.hahaha)) hand. "Those, Tris, are what I think to be our new students."  
  
"WHAT?!" Tris exclaimed, storming in and slamming the door shut behind her. "Students? ~New~ students? What do you ~mean~ 'new students'?!" "Wrong thing to say." Sandry hissed before going to calm down the angry Tris. "Briar found these three girls using magic in the marketplace." Sandry explained. "Even though there is no such thing as magic." Adi muttered. "And Daja used her scrying mirror on them. We found of that Adriana-Adi-is a space mage." Sandry pointed to Adi. "Lutra is a time mage." Lutra grinned. "And Vanessa, or Ness, is a dimensions mage."  
  
Tris stood there for a few seconds, trying to comprehend this. "New students." She said. "Yep." Briar replied. "Three new students."  
  
Tris scowled at Adi, Lutra, and Ness. "Who's ever heard of a space mage?" She said to Adi, almost accusingly. "I don't have magic. There's ~no such thing~. How many times do I have to tell you that?" Adi said with a sigh.  
  
Tris glared at her, giving her a very malevolent look. "No such thing as magic? What do you ~mean~. . ." Daja cut her off. "Um, Tris, perhaps we should all. . . go upstairs again, and discuss this." "What's there to talk about? We are not getting any more students." Tris turned her glare at Daja. "Now, we are going upstairs." She directed this comment mainly at Tris, who sighed finally, slightly resigned.  
  
"You three ~stay down here~." Daja emphasized the ~stay down here~ part, indicating that the three of them should not try to spy on them. Tris shot them a look reminiscent of Lutra's colorguard instructor. The group went back upstairs, this time Tris with them.  
  
When they were out of earshot, Adi once again vehemently exclaimed how preposterous everything was. "Adi," Lutra began. "I believe them. It might sound crazy, but considering the fact that we don't know where we are-erm, I mean we don't know exactly how we got here or how far from home we are- maybe our magic or whatever else we have could explain this." "Wait!" Ness said. "You're forgetting the most important problem here-how do we get back?" Both Adi and Lutra stared at her, realizing that they hadn't thought of that. Up until this point, it had seemed like a bizarre dream, but now it dawned on them-the predicament they were ~really~ in. They were far away from home, who knows how far (even Adi couldn't answer that), and really had no idea how to get back.  
  
Adi broke the silence by saying, "Do you think we should as one of them?" She pointed upstairs. "No!" Ness said firmly. "They think we're from the other side of the ocean. They'd just tell us to get on a ship and leave." "Maybe we should tell them the truth." Lutra interrupted. Adi shook her head. "What, and tell them that we don't know how we got here? That's ridiculous." "Why?" Lutra asked. "Well, because. . . then. . ."  
  
"Then we think you three will need a lot of help." Came Briar's voice from the top of the stairs as they came down. The three girls stared, bewildered. "Well, we're pretty good at eavesdropping, too." Briar said, grinning. "We practiced quite a bit as students."  
  
"So, where aer the three of you really from, if not, 'the other side of the ocean'?" Sandry asked.  
  
The three looked at each other. "I need to learn to speak quieter," Adi muttered darkly. "Well, ~I~ was quiet." Ness said. "So, should we tell them?" "I think we already have." Adi said.  
  
Sandry interrupted them once again. "No, you haven't. Where are you from?" She repeated. Adi glared at her, then sighed. "We're from a country called America on the western shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and we live in a town called Bufezda in a state called Iowa, with the latitude and longitude being. . ." Lutra cut in. "Adi, I think they get the idea." She turned to Sandry. "Sorry. She can go on for hours like that." "Oh, as if ~you're~ any better." Adi retorted. She pretended to use Lutra's voice and said, "George Washington was born on June 21st 17-something or another, at 7:45 p, and 24 seconds and 51 milliseconds. . ." Lutra made a face at her.  
  
Briar looked at Sandry and whispered, "George Washington?"  
  
Sandry shook her head at Briar, then turned to face the girls. "Well, we haven't heard of any of those places." She said. "Maybe they ~are~ from the other side of the ocean." Murmured Daja.  
  
"Well, we're from another dimension." Ness added helpfully, nodding. She heard a snort from someone behind her. "Well, I just know, okay?" "Another dimension," Tris muttered. "Now how do we get rid of them?" "Tris!" Sandry scolded. "How could you think of such a thing? They need teachers?"  
  
"Then what are we waiting for?" Asked Tris, annoyed. She stalked to the wooden door, saying, "Well, I'm going to find them one." She flung open the door, which promptly slammed shut again. She turned to glare at Briar.  
  
"Have you ever heard of a space, time, and dimensions mage?" Briar asked the redhead calmly. Tris continued to glare at him, then sighed. "No." She admitted grudgingly. "Then do you really think you're going to find one?" The boy asked.  
  
"Okay, you're right. So what do we do, teach them ourselves?" She asked sarcastically. She glanced at her other three companions, then nastily added, "Forget I said that."  
  
"What else are we supposed to do?" Sandry said in an all too patient voice. "We are required to teach them." "No, Briar is." Countered Tris. "I have enough to deal with already!" Briar exclaimed. "But if someone else wants to teach Evvy. . ." "No thank you." Daja said. "You can keep her." "You're so kind," Answered Briar sarcastically. "You don't have any students, why don't you take them?"  
  
Adi turned to Lutra. "They're talking about us like we're not here." She remarked. Lutra nodded. "Ever so true."  
  
Meanwhile, Briar, Sandry, Tris, and Daja continued arguing over who was going to teach "them." "At least hold off on a decision until tomorrow. Let them stay the night and maybe things will make more sense then." Said Sandry in a much-harassed voice, looking at Tris expectantly. "Oh, fine." Answered Tris reluctantly. "But I'm not teaching them!" "Then it's settled. Finally." Daja muttered under her breath.  
  
Suddenly chagrined, Sandry asked, "I'm sorry! I guess we've been ignoring you. Why don't I show you to your room?" She looked at them. "Come, follow me. Do you mind sharing a room?"  
  
Adi, Lutra, and Ness followed Sandry up the stairs and into their new room. The room was illuminated by a huge window that opened up to a pleasant but strange scene. There were no signs of modern civilization. The electricity poles, the tar streets, even the background sound of cars whizzing past were conspicuously absent.  
  
It was at that moment that it finally hit them that this was indeed a very different world. 


	7. Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX  
  
That night, after they got settled, none of them seemed to be able to fall asleep. "What are we going to do?" Ness voiced the question on everyone's mind. After along silence, caused by Ness's inquiry, Adi asked, "Do you think our parents will miss us?" "Of course!" Ness replied, almost scoldingly. "But my brother on the other hand. . ." Lutra muttered. Adi laughed. She knew Lutra's brother, Martin.  
  
They spent the rest of the night exchanging sibling horror stories. It wasn't until Adi and Lutra fell asleep that Ness realized her question had never been answered.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
They all slept late the next morning, and would have slept longer if the sun's rays hadn't shown directly on their faces. Ness groaned and rolled over, accidentally kicking Adi in the process. "What was that for?" Adi demanded, annoyed. "I was having a really good dream!" Ness ignored her, caught up in the zombie-like trance that happens to those who aren't morning people. Adi shrugged, and turned over to try and fall back to sleep. Unfortunately, as she was trying to get in a comfortable position, she rolled over and hit Lutra in the head.  
  
"Hey!" Lutra exclaimed, irritated at being awoken so suddenly. "I'm in colorguard, I get hit on the head enough!" Lutra grabbed her pillow and whacked Adi in the head with it. Adi responded with a thrown pillow in Lutra's face. Pretty soon, the girls had a full blown pillow fight going.  
  
"Could you keep it down? You're giving me a headache," Said Ness, who had just woken up out of her daze.  
  
Adi and Lutra exchanged glances, and with an unspoken agreement, each swung a pillow at Ness.  
  
~*~  
  
Downstairs, Sandry and Daja were cleaning up the breakfast dishes. "I think they're up by now," Commended Daja, listening to the muffled sounds coming from upstairs. "I think they're having a war up there," Remarked Briar, walking into the kitchen. "Do you have any more food?" "I think you've had enough." Replied Daja, remembering how much food he ate that morning.  
  
"It's not for me, it's for the kids upstairs. They'll probably be hungry." Explained Briar. Sandry looked at him, surprised. "That's very considerate of you."  
  
"Oh no, he's not being considerate, he just wants an excuse to go join them," Commented Tris dryly, poking her head in the kitchen.  
  
Suddenly, the muffled sounds of fighting stopped. "Do you think they've killed each other?" Asked Briar with an interested look on his face. Sandry smiled and then went upstairs to tell the girls to come down for breakfast. She opened the door and saw the three girls rolling on the floor, shaking with barely contained mirth, amidst three pillows looking very flat. "Anyone hungry?" Asked Sandry as soon as she got her own laughter under control. A chorus of "Yes, please!" Was heard. "So, what's to eat?" Asked Adi. "Come down and you'll see." Replied Sandry with a smile. All three rushed down the stairs, fighting to be the first one down.  
  
"Hey, they're worse than we are." Commended Briar. "I thought you guys had all killed yourselves by now, from what it sounded." "Yeah, almost killed ~me~." Ness muttered, causing Adi and Lutra to go into muffled giggles.  
  
Breakfast was definitely different from what the three of them were used to. It was a lot more than the cold cereal Lutra ate every day, and even more than Ness who hardly even ate breakfast. While the three of them were eating, Sandry and Daja finished cleaning up.  
  
"So, what are we going to do about their meditation?" Briar asked. "I was thinking that we'd do it after they-" Sandry was interrupted by Adi choking on a piece of toast. "~Meditation?! ~" Adi exclaimed, getting her coughing under control. "Why the heck do we have to ~meditate?~" I don't need to ~meditate!~" Adi sat back, crossing her arms. Lutra and Ness sighed simultaneously. "You have to ~meditate~ to learn how to control your magic." Daja said. Naturally, Adi opened her mouth to argue. "Magic? There's no such thing as. . ." Tris turned to glare furiously at her. "IF YOU SAY THAT ONE MORE TIME I'LL. . ." "TRIS!" Three voices shouted at once, causing Tris to snap her mouth shut and resort to just glaring at the girls, her gray eyes flashing. "Adi," Sandry said, even her patience wearing thin. "I know things might be different from where you're from, but here magic ~is~ real and it ~is~ possible and moreover ~you three have it.~" Adi sighed, looking resigned. Her strong doubts were starting to leave her-she was starting to actually believe magic ~was~ possible.  
  
After breakfast was over, Sandry ushered the three girls into the living room, while Tris muttered something about "finding other teachers."  
  
"I think it would be best if Briar and I taught them today." Sandry said. Briar's mouth opened and closed several times in argument, but Sandry looked very decisive. "No argument there." Tris said, turning and going up the stairs nearby. "If you need me, I'll be in the forge." Daja added, then left for her forge.  
  
"Of course ~you~ had to pick ~me~ to help teach them." Briar said. Sandry smiled innocently at him, then turned back to the three girls. "Alright, the three of you sit down." The girls obeyed. Sandry made her protective circle around the three girls, her, and Briar. "What's that?" Adi asked, curious. "A protective circle. It keeps magic from leaking out." Sandry explained. Lutra, knowing what Adi was going to say ahead of time, elbowed her.  
  
Sandry and Briar sat down, facing the girls, who also sat down. "Meditation," Sandry began, "Helps you to control your magic. It keeps it from getting away from you, accidentally losing control." They nodded-so far, so good. "Now, to meditate, first you must close your eyes." Sandry told them.  
  
Adi, Lutra, and Ness blinked at her.  
  
"First you must ~close your eyes,~" Sandry repeated. This time, they did. "Now, clear your mind of everything. Leave it blank, empty, open." Adi opened her eyes. "But it's impossible to have your mind clear of-" "Adi!" Briar sounded exasperated. "For once, just STICK WITH THE HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION!"  
  
Adi stopped arguing. Of course she did--~Briar~ was telling her something.  
  
"Anyway, try to clear your mind." Sandry repeated, trying to get everyone back on the topic of meditation.  
  
Adi closed her eyes, but random thoughts kept popping into her head. ~I can't do this. I think that Briar is. . .hot. Hehe. My nose itches. I didn't do my English homework.~ Adi could not concentrate. She opened one eye to look at Lutra, who was faring no better. Random thoughts came into Lutra's mind as well. ~I was late for colorguard three days ago,~ She thought ponderously. ~I hate being late, even for practice. And I think one of my oboe reeds are broken, darn it! I have to buy a new one. And. . .and. . .and I left my book open on my bed! Martin's going to get at it, the fiend. . .~ Lutra's eye opened and she saw Adi staring one-eyed at her. A small giggle came from Lutra. Adi giggled, too. Ness was actually ~trying~ to clear her mind and meditate, but it wasn't working. Her nose itched, her leg cramped, and she just could not concentrate.  
  
Ness opened her eyes and looked at Adi and Lutra. They had now totally abandoned all concentration and were now squinting one eye shut and going "Arrrrr!" like pirates.  
  
Briar, noticing no change in the girl's magic, opened his eyes to look at them. Adi and Lutra seemed to be acting like pirates, and Ness was just shaking her head at them Briar sighed, trying really hard to keep his temper in check. Adi and Lutra, noticing Briar's eyes on them, stopped the pirate act and tried to look like they were meditating. Ness grinned inwardly, thinking about how funny they acted around Briar.  
  
And hour went by, then two, then two and a half, and still no progress was made.  
  
Finally, Briar got fed up with it. "Alright!" He said. Adi and Lutra jumped; Ness blinked. "This is not working. We've tried everything, first clearing your mind and then even counting. . . you three aren't doing anything!" He shook his head. Evvy popped into the room, grinning at her exasperated teacher. "I didn't get it the first time, either." Evvy said to Adi, Lutra, and Ness. Briar scowled at her.  
  
"I think that's enough meditation for now." Sandry announced. Adi looked relieved. Briar looked at Sandry. The two of them stared at each other for a long time, looking like they were talking but not saying anything. Adi, Lutra, and Ness all exchanged glances. What ~were~ they doing?  
  
"~I'm~ going out to my garden." Briar said out loud. "If you want anything more to do with them, be my guest." Briar waved his hand, got up, and went outside to the garden. Sandry sighed. "Don't worry." She told the three of them reassuringly. "Most people don't do it right the first time."  
  
There was a loud knock on the door. Raising an eyebrow, Sandry turned to look. "Hello? Is Tris there? I need to talk to Tris!" the voice sounded like it belonged to an older person. Sandry walked over and opened the door. "Ok, Kethlun, welcome." She said. The man-Kethlun-looked toward them. ((a/n: I'm not describing Keth because I really don't know what he looks like))  
  
Kethlun nodded politely at Sandry. "Where's Tris?" he asked again. "I need to talk to her." Sandry nodded, then seemingly did that odd thing she did with Briar before.  
  
Tris came down from the stairs. "What did you do ~this~ time, Keth?" She asked, shaking her head. "I leave you for ~five minutes~. . ." Lutra didn't say anything about that. Keth, while being older than Tris, still seemed to "do what she said."  
  
Well, Tris ~did~ have that affect on people.  
  
Tris came into the living room, indicating for her student to come outside with her. "Who is that?" Adi asked Sandry after Tris and Keth went outside. "That's Kethlun, or Keth as most people call him. He's Tris's student, a glass/lightning mage." Sandry explained. "You haven't met Pasco yet, either. He's my student, a dancing mage." "Where's he?" Asked Ness. "Pasco is away for awhile at his dance school. He'll be back in a few days."  
  
"So, do we ~have~ to try meditation again? Inquired Adi, changing the topic and hoping Sandry would say no.  
  
"Yes." Sandry replied. "You'll have to do it until you can control your magic and use it." The three girls looked at each other.  
  
"Oh, lovely." Adi replied.  
  
((review, chaps, review!!)) 


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